Worrell Makes It Interesting : Baseball: Dodgers beat Reds, 5-4, but pitcher questions Lasorda’s decision to bring him on in the ninth inning in relief of Nomo with a four-run lead.

Dodger relief pitcher Todd Worrell was surprised when the bullpen phone rang during the eighth inning of Sunday’s 5-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium.

After all, Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo, who lasted only four innings in his last start after cracking the nail on his right middle finger, had struck out 11 Reds and given up one run and five hits in eight innings as the Dodgers built a 5-1 lead.

But Manager Tom Lasorda didn’t want to take any chances after Nomo made 97 pitches on a day when the game-time temperature reached 99 degrees, so he pulled Nomo for pinch-hitter Mitch Webster, who was booed by the sellout crowd of 53,085, and inserted Worrell.

Worrell, who gave up one run on two hits and a walk in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s 4-2 victory over the Reds, gave up a three-run homer to first baseman Hal Morris before getting the final three outs.

In addition to Morris’ home run, Worrell also gave up a double and two walks before pinch-hitter Benito Santiago fouled out for the final out of the game as the Dodgers moved within three games of the Colorado Rockies in the National League West.

“I don’t think I should have been in the game, but I don’t make those decisions,” Worrell said. “I just don’t think that was my spot to finish the game.

“Pitching the ninth inning with a three-run lead or less, that’s my job. We’ve got four or five other arms down there. You can’t have an effective bullpen pitching one guy.

“I go in and pitch because he [Lasorda] told me to go in and pitch. I can’t tell him no. If he wants me in there in that spot, then I’ve got to go in and pitch.”

Responded Lasorda: “That’s his opinion. He’s got a right to think whatever he wants to.

“He’s my closer and I wanted to bring him in in that situation. . . . Forget the negatives and think of the positives. He saved that game, didn’t he? That’s all that counts.”

Worrell did not get credit for a save because he started the ninth inning with a four-run lead.

Nomo, who recorded only one strikeout in his previous outing, looked fully recovered from the cracked fingernail that hindered his control in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss at Houston, striking out three of the first seven hitters he faced, including left fielder Ron Gant, who went after a forkball in the dirt.

“It was just normal conditions,” Nomo said through an interpreter when asked if his fingernail was bothering him. “It didn’t concern me. I’d have been concerned if it started to crack.”

Although Nomo said he was fine, Lasorda removed him as a precaution.

“We were afraid that if he tore that thing any more he wouldn’t be able to get his next start,” Lasorda said. “He has to tell us what his condition is, and he did that.”

The National League leader with 150 strikeouts, Nomo (8-2) became the first Dodger since Fernando Valenzuela to strike out 10 or more batters in seven games. Nomo, who struck out the side in the fifth, fanned right fielder Thomas Howard and third baseman Jeff Branson three times apiece and he got both Gant and catcher Eddie Taubensee twice. He also struck out Red starter Tim Pugh.

Nomo, who has walked 50 batters in his 17 starts, didn’t issue a walk for the second time this season.

He also collected his second hit of the season, getting a bloop single to right in the fifth inning.

With the score tied, 1-1, in the sixth, the Dodgers broke the game open when catcher Mike Piazza homered to left and, two batters later, right fielder Raul Mondesi drilled a two-run homer to left-center to chase Pugh (5-4).

Piazza, who had only two hits in his last 15 at-bats (.133), broke out of his slump by going two for four and driving in two runs. He drove in the final run with a seventh-inning single.